Nate Davis: Worth the Gamble

I don’t know Jason Whitlock, the wildly opinionated columnist for the Kansas City Star and Fox Sports, but I thought of him immediately when the 49ers drafted quarterback Nate Davis yesterday. Whitlock made a mid-season critique of Davis that caused a swirl of controversy in the football world.

You’d never know it from his decidedly rotund physique, but Whitlock was a lineman on the Ball State football team in his trimmer collegiate days. As such, he paid particularly close attention to Davis’ career at his alma mater. After the Oklahoma-Texas Tech game this year, matching quarterbacks Sam Bradford and Graham Harrell, Whitlock wrote, “I live in Big 12 country. I follow the league and have watched them all play regularly. Michael Crabtree is the best football player in the Big 12, but not one of the Big 12′s quarterbacks is in the same physical ballpark as Nate Davis. It’s not close. They can’t match his arm, instincts, touch, accuracy, presence, ability to move in the pocket, out of the pocket or make plays when things break down.”

In a savage criticism of ESPN, which did not include Davis in its rundown of the nation’s top quarterbacks, Whitlock went on, “A powerful, unbiased, independent journalist would’ve traveled to Ball State during the summer and talked with the man who recruited Tom Brady to Michigan (Ball State coach Brady Hoke) and the man who coached Brady at Michigan (Ball State offensive coordinator Stan Parrish). They’ll tell you that Nate Davis has the tools to be better than Tom Brady — and they absolutely adore Brady. If you watch Davis play, he looks like the second coming of Brett Favre.”

As you might expect, those comments summoned a resounding “Whaaaat?” around the country. Whitlock has a way of doing that. I know he lost me a couple of years ago when he claimed that in today’s world of quick, massive defensive linemen, the great Gale Sayers would be nothing more than a situational running back/return man. But Whitlock is no fool, and he’s a player in the world of high-exposure sports commentary. He’s upset a hell of a lot of people over the years, including New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, who reportedly was so upset with Whitlock’s irreverence on ESPN’s Sunday-morning “Sports Reporters,” he used his considerable influence to get Whitlock bounced off the show. (That’s Whitlock’s version, anyway, and it’s entirely plausible.)

Whitlock presents himself as just about the most astute football observer around, and while that stance is often obnoxious (and not self-effacing enough to believe he’s kidding), he knows his stuff and often hits the target squarely. As for Davis, who knows? Every team in the NFL became wary of his learning disability and the fact that he didn’t play well in Ball State’s last two games (spoiling an undefeated season), including the GMAC Bowl against Tulsa. But this is a kid with considerable talent. Having seen a bit of Davis on television, and a whole lot of Michael Crabtree, I think the 49ers’ passing game has big-time potential down the road.

3-DOTTING: The happiest quarterback in the NFL might be Donovan McNabb. The Eagles already had an explosive wide receiver in DeSean Jackson, and now they have two if Jeremy Maclin, the heralded wideout from Missouri, is as good as advertised. The Eagles also took a solid, pass-catching running back, Pitt’s LeSean McCoy, in the second round. Add the versatile Brian Westbrook, and that’s a very interesting offense . . . I’m with USC coach Pete Carroll, who didn’t mind going public with his doubts about Mark Sanchez as an NFL starting quarterback at this stage of his life. I watched a lot of games with hard-core USC people, none of whom have ever liked Sanchez, especially his weak performance in the Trojans’ costly loss to Oregon State this year . . . Much was made of the rivalry between ESPN draft experts Mel Kiper and Todd McShay. That’s an ongoing battle, but give Kiper the clear edge for now. He had 8 correct picks in the first round to McShay’s 5, and while the first two picks were automatics (Matthew Stafford to the Lions, Jason Smith to the Rams), Kiper nailed the first four, had Sanchez going fifth (to Cleveland, not knowing the Jets would trade up), and called 7 of the first 14 . . . The NFL has the right idea in proposing to eliminate two exhibition games in favor an 18-game schedule, but commissioner Roger Goodell has outlined a plan that wrecks the continuity of a season. First, he refuses to start the season on Labor Day weekend, preferring that the league go dark for a week between the preseason and the regular-season openers. He still wants a bye for each team during the season (wrong; no byes, ever, college or pro), then a week off between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. In a real season, your team plays every week, period, no exceptions . . . Next season, if you can fathom such lunacy, the Pro Bowl will be played between the conference title games and the Super Bowl.

What a contrast: the rocking, sold-out Fenway Park, jammed to the rafters every night, against the nightly embarrassment of empty field-level seats (simply too expensive) at the new Yankee Stadium, painfully clear to anyone watching on television . . . Thanks to Randy Johnson for the latest appropriate commentary on pitch counts. An espn.com writer noted that Johnson had a 150-pitch game at USC and wondered if that was a bit excessive. “I used to throw 135-140 in the major leagues,” he said. “So when I see someone coming out after 100 pitches, I kind of laugh.” . . . The rest of the NBA playoff series seem somewhat ordinary compared to Bulls-Celtics. The backcourt matchups — Rajon Rondo-Derrick Rose and Ray Allen-Ben Gordon — are nothing short of awe-inspiring, and Gordon’s floating 8-foot bank shot (against a stifling double-team) with 31 seconds left in regulation yesterday was one of the purest clutch shots I’ve ever seen in the playoffs . . . If you watch Rondo on those blinding-fast drives to the hoop, he always shoots with his right hand. Imagine if he had a left hand like Rose’s, or Brandon Roy‘s . . . For the first time yesterday, Joakim Noah reminded me of his dad, Yannick, one of the most talented and entertaining players in the history of tennis, and a man who knew how to deliver in front of a home crowd (winning the 1983 French Open final against Mats Wilander). I’m not real fond of Joakim’s whole act, which is why I’m going to close with a typically classic comment from espn.com‘s Bill Simmons (a New Englander and maniacally devoted Celtics fan), but give Noah credit. He came up huge yesterday on both ends of the floor.

Simmons: “Real hate is not OK. Sports hate is OK, and I hate Joakim Noah. I hate looking at him. I hate his hair. I hate how he dunks. I hate his game. I hate every reaction he has. I want the Celtics to win for a variety of reasons, but one of them is because it means Joakim Noah would lose. He’s like a cross between Bill Laimbeer, Marcus Camby and Lisa Bonet.”